Eight out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months, according to Bloomberg. That means a whopping 80% of businesses crash and burn and only one third of the number of businesses there are now will make it to year 10. We at Two Row Times are on our fifth year.

Eight out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months, according to Bloomberg. That means a whopping 80% of businesses crash and burn and only one third of the number of businesses there are now will make it to year 10.

We at Two Row Times are on our fifth year.

This means that even though we are still standing, we have gone through trials and tribulations, highs and lows in the same way that other businesses do each year. There is the imminent feeling of possible failure or mistake that tails the paper around like a ball to a chain and we recognize it.

There is the failure to deliver real value, failure to connect with the target audience, lack of authenticity and transparency, failure to be strategic and efficient leaders, failure to communicate properly and more. Having these issues can subjugate a business and bring it to its knees faster than 18 months.

So we know the odds are against us, but if we take too long to admire the statistics we’ll become them. So everyday, we get into the trenches and inch forward.

Why?

Because of our readership.

The community the Two Row Times makes home in is what has kept us going — like coals to an engine. The ads, the stories, the news and more come from our community and elsewhere and help to shape the paper.

The basic necessities of a newspaper are to inform, interpret the news, entertain, move readers and provide a service of information and these are each qualities we aim to have. Newspapers are designed to help readers become informed citizens through fact and that is the main goal of ours.

As an indigenous based news outlet we want nothing more than for our readership to be educated in as many aspects of Indian Country as possible. But we aren’t always perfect.

What pains the most though, isn’t the mistakes, but the act of having to portray the ugly within our community at times. Often we get to show the heart warming parts, but in contrast we have to balance and show the heart wrenching ones too.

So again, those that make the paper possible are appreciated to the highest degree, but so are our readers. Because it is our readership that ultimately shapes the paper.

And even if you just pick us up to check out your horoscope, we salute you.